Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.

I rented a house from this individual. I was a long time tenant and made all of the repairs on the home myself. I eventually made an offer on a home that was listed as a short sale. Then it came time to sign a new lease. Munir Maalouf had told me in the previous year that since I was a good long time tenant he would let me out of the lease but he still needed one because that is how he operates his rental business. The lease he gave me was a very poor photocopy of the original lease I signed years ago. Once before when he gave me a bad photocopy I had it retyped. So I fired up my word processor and found the file. My plan was to add a homebuyer’s purchase clause to the lease and offer that to him so that I could move out if my offer was accepted.

So I searched around on the Internet and I wound up at a website that was for landlords who rent homes and apartments. It was full of advice for them and one of the postings included a Home Buyers Purchase Clause that would let the tenant out of the lease if they were in good standing, had an accepted offer on a home, gave good notice and was in good standing on the rent payments. [continued below]....

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..... There was also something in there about the house being in good repair too. So it was restrictive for me but good for him and it put into writing what he had promised verbally. He never responded but a lawyer did. The lawyer sent me a new lease that was really restrictive and demanded that I sign it. We went back and forth and they tried to intimidate me, they demanded an inspection of the home which I agreed to but I refused to sign a lease without a home buyer clause and gave notice to leave. After that we worked out a deal where I could stay month to month but I had to pay $100.00 more per month. So I did that for a few months and then sent a letter that stated that the following month would be my last. I also told him I would call to schedule the inspection that he requested previously. When I called him he did not care about the inspection. He told me that I had to pay rent for the final month. He was really concerned that I would try to live off the security. I assured him several times that I would pay the final months’ rent on time. I have never paid the rent late. But I became concerned and began to worry about whether or not I would get my security back. I did some reading and all the advice out there said that you have to pay the final months’ rent and if you don't it makes you look bad before a judge if the landlord starts a court action. So even though I no longer trusted him I had to do things the right way.

So I resolved to clean the house really good and take care of any holes in the wall from pictures. After we moved all our stuff out we took pictures of the house. We got pictures of every room and the outside as well. We also took a video and narrated it as we walked around the house. One of the neighbors stopped by to say good bye and my wife walked her around the house and asked her if she thought we had done a good job of cleaning it up. She said that it was better than she would have done. I moved out and Munir's lawyer sends me a letter demanding an additional month of rent because we were under lease. I reply that I was a month to month tennant and not obligated under a lease. I ask for my security. I get no response. I write another letter demanding my security and that I will go to court if necessary. I get a response that threatens me that if I go to court they will counterclaim for an additional month of rent by saying that I did not give notice in time (I gave 6 weeks and I am required to only give 30 days). The letter also said that they will claim $400.00 in cleaning costs and a $60.00 water bill. The house was clean and the water bill has never been $60.00 (Presumably only a portion of the final water bill would have been my responsibility). A $45.00 water bill every three months was typical and it was in the landlords name so he would pay it and send me a copy and I would add it to the rent payment. He never sent me a final water bill, his heart was set on keeping my money before I left. I go to small claims court in three weeks.

Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.